Laura Bush Writes About Her Fatal Car Crash

Laura Bush Writes About Her Fatal Car Crash

In her new memoir, the former first lady reveals a haunting memory from her past that made her question her faith.

-Faye Brennan

Did you know that the former first lady accidentally killed someone? It’s true. In 1963, when Laura Bush was a 17-year-old in High School, she was driving to the movies with a friend when she ran a stop sign and collided with another car at 50 mph. One of her classmates named Mike Douglas happened to be driving the other car, and he didn’t survive.

Mrs. Bush has finally opened up about this terrible memory from her past in her new book, Spoken From the Heart. She admits that after that day, she struggled for years with overwhelming guilt and even lost her religious faith for quite some time.

Bush recalls, “The whole time … I was praying that the person in the other car was alive. In my mind, I was calling ‘Please, God. Please, God. Please, God,’ over and over and over again.”

“It was the first time that I had prayed to God for something, begged him for something, not the simple childhood wishing on a star but humbly begging for another human life. And it was as if no one heard. My begging, to my 17-year-old mind, had made no difference. The only answer was the sound of Mrs. Douglas’ [the boy’s mother] sobs on the other side of that thin emergency room curtain.”

With her prayers seemingly ignored, the former first lady writes that she did not believe in God for “many, many years.”

What a terrible thing to go through at such a young age. And, bringing up the painful memories again to write her book was probably equally as hard. (AOL News)